Mel C, clearly the most driven of the Spice Girls post-breakup, is at it again with her latest single and accompanying video, “Anymore.” The first single from what will be her seventh album, Version of Me (to be released in October), is typical of Mel C in terms of its anthemic and empowering nature.
With a video that opens on former Sporty sitting solemnly in a nightclub in a booth near a couple, we’re given a quick dose of the loneliness pervading her as she mourns, “I’ve been looking for something else to distract me/Looking for someone who’s looking for someone worth saving.” Deciding to quell some of her sadness by heading toward the scantly populated dance floor, Mel C declares, “I feel the beat kicking in my chest/Close my eyes and wait, but it’s not working yet.”
The loss of her one ability to cope with trauma–dancing to the rhythm–is something those around her in the video, whether on the floor with her or in separate scenes, seem to be re-teaching her how to do from afar. The wide range of age groups and ethnicities working out their problems to the beat is moving to watch, and a testament to just how much of Mel C’s career has been driven by the healing power of dance music.
Her voice evermore mature and certain of itself (she was always the most vocally talented of all the Spice Girls), Mel C’s path toward getting over the person who she’s “not supposed to love… anymore” becomes clearer, stronger. As she tries to” lose [herself] in the light” and “find [herself] in the night,” she realizes that she doesn’t want to go home (much like Tove Lo in “Habits”), finding out that the club is, indeed, her only source of emotional salvation.
